I got the idea for this experiment, not from the internet or a science book, but from a simple game I developed to teach my five year-old about angles. We call it the Acute Obtuse game, and all it takes to play is a ball and a wall. But balls aren’t the only bounce-able toys. It’s easy to turn wall-ball into flashlight geometry.

The instructions for this experiment are simple (materials are in bold):

Draw a target on a paper plate, and tape it to a wall or ceiling.

Using modeling clay, stand a discarded CD upright on a paper plate.

Turn out the lights in the room.

Shine a flashlight on the CD and try to angle it so the reflected light hits the target.

For more fun, use a laser pointer and multiple CDs to hit targets hidden behind obstacles!

Note: There are many alternate ways to perform this experiment. Try them all! And let me know if yours show up better on video than ours did. *mutters* I swear, it was gorgeous in person, no matter how wimpy it appeared on camera…

It’s Hanukkah, and in my house that means it’s time to celebrate with science! Tonight, we poured some bubbly and drowned our…raisins. Well, we tried to drown them, but raisins are surprisingly good swimmers. In the video above, my five-year-old explains how “The Raisin Lifting Experiment” works, but even after the experiment was finished and the candles on the menorah were long gone, we were still chatting away about density, volume, buoyancy, and carbonation. Who knew that tossing a few wrinkled snacks into some fizzy-lifting drink could turn into a conversation about the origins of life on Earth?

The instructions for this experiment are simple (materials are in bold):

Or not. The Layered Liquids experiment has more to do with liquids that don’t mix easily, than the other way around. The most straightforward things to demonstrate by creating this colorful column are density and miscibility, but from there it’s a short conversational tangent to intermolecular force and the hydrophobic effect.

The instructions for this experiment are simple (materials are in bold):

Pour honey into a clear container.

Pour liquid dish soap slowly down the side of the container onto the honey.

Pour colored water slowly down the side of the container onto the dish soap.

Pour cooking oil slowly down the side of the container onto the water.

Pour colored rubbing alcohol down the side of the container onto the oil.

After liquids have settled into layers and discussion has slowed, STIR THE LIQUIDS!

Roger Bacon said, “Mathematics is the gate and key of the sciences. … Neglect of mathematics works injury to all knowledge, since he who is ignorant of it cannot know the other sciences or the things of this world.” After today’s celebration, my son says, “Mmm, delicious math!”

The instructions for this experiment are simple (materials are in bold):

First, open a small bag of multi-colored candies.

Count the candies, and note on a chart how many candies were in the bag.

Sort candies by color and note on the chart how many candies you have of each color.

Repeat several times! (We opened eight bags, one at a time to avoid mixing candies.)

For fun, chart total candies, average candies per bag, and percent of each color.

Translate your data into a bar graph, line graph, and pie chart for easy comparisons.

Hanukkah is the festival of lights, and in my family, we celebrate with illuminating science experiments. Yesterday, we launched a balloon rocket, and today we’re sinking ships. Well, tin foil boats, actually, but this small experiment holds greater drama than you might expect. We thought it would be a simple to float and then sink a couple of flimsy dinghies, but we were surprised but the tiny vessels’ epic buoyancy.

Initially, I’d hoped to introduce the concept of density to my son, but the ‘Floating and Sinking’ experiment provides an excellent gateway to talking about volume, fluid displacement, and the many other contributions of Archimedes, including the origin of “Eureka!” as the go-to exclamation of scientific discovery. As an added bonus, this — like all good experiments — gives the opportunity to practice the scientific method. Of course, sometimes the most fun is had when the experiment doesn’t go as planned…

The instructions for this experiment are simple (materials are in bold):

Shape a boat from tin foil.

Drop it in a container of water to see if it floats.

Crumple the foil boat to see if it sinks.

If not, shape another foil boat and float it.

Place objects, like pennies, paper clips or small magnets, in the boat until it sinks.

Repeat!

Special note: In honor of Archimedes, try this experiment at bath time!

Part of the reason I was never a brilliant math student had to do with the chasm of difference between how I was taught math and how I understood it. Art has always been ‘my thing’ so in spite of all my math teachers’ best efforts to learn by the book, I inevitably accessed the subject artistically. Specifically, through patterns.

In school, I was an incorrigible margin-doodler and I would always get mad whenever a teacher scolded me for not showing my work. The crazy cartoon geometry framing my homework showed how I worked the math problems! I never understood why my teachers got so annoyed with me for finding answers in my own way. It was an early and often-repeated lesson in how seeing the world differently is widely equated with cheating.

Now look at me. Parent of a school-aged child and worried sick about the cookie-cutter curriculum he’s up against… Sometimes it still seems that way, doesn’t it? Like it’s us versus classrooms? But kids and parents are better armed these days; we have the internet, and it is full of useful alternatives for students who need them. I even found an example of someone demonstrating multiplication the way I taught myself to understand it. Specifically, through patterns.

Vi Hart is my favorite mathematician and among my top five favorite YouTubers. Her videos are an effective combination of straightforward, smart and charming, and I recommend them highly to geeks of all kinds.

I’ve been a geek all my life, but I hated school. Until college, I learned more watching PBS and maxing out my youth library card every week than I ever did in a classroom. I’m worried that my son will have the same experience – he’s only four years old, but he already loves science at a fourth grade level.

And I’m a Geek Mom! Rather than sit back and try to make lemonade out of a lemon education system, I’m constantly on the hunt for smarter alternatives to the status quo. Where does one look for wise innovation? Humanitarian design, of course!

Project H Design believes that design can change the world, and I think they’re on to something. Using old tires, a sandbox and some chalk, they came up with an education tool that could make any classroom world-class. Their “Learning Landscape” was originally designed to make math education fun, but it’s dynamic enough to be applied as widely as language studies and civics, and it can be adapted to any grade level.

Take a look, and if you love it as much as kids do, put your local principals in touch with Project H Design. They’re currently seeking ten new ‘flagship’ schools where they can help fund and install Learning Landscapes.